The More FUN Your Workout Is, the Less Likely You Are to Pig Out Later

If you’re not having fun while exercising, working out may be hurting rather than helping your weight loss efforts. Studies in the past have shown that individuals who exercise compensate for their hard work by eating more afterwards. However, new research suggests that individuals exercising can avoid compensating their efforts with food if the physical activity itself is fun.

The researchers conducted three separate studies to find this correlation between having fun during exercise and eating less afterwards. In the first study, researchers asked two groups of people to take a one-mile walk. The first group got to test out a new mp3 player and listen to music they enjoyed during the walk, while the second group was asked to focus just on the exercise during the walk. Afterwards both groups were provided a lunch which include both very healthy and less healthy options. The second group, who solely concentrated on walking, consumed 42% more chocolate pudding and soda than the first group, who got to use the mp3 players. And what do the results suggest? That having fun while exercising helps us to avoid compensating our exercise with more food afterwards.

The second study confirmed these results. The researchers asked two groups of people to go on a one-mile walk. The first group was asked to focus on the walk as an exercise session while the second group was encouraged to just have fun during the walk. Afterwards, the participants were offered M&Ms. The first group served themselves twice as much candy as the second group.

On to the next goal: to add a little pressure to the participants. The researchers wanted to know if their theory would hold true under different conditions—a real competitive race event. So after a relay race in which participants were running five to ten kilometers, the researchers asked over 200 runners to fill out a survey about their racing experience. Then they were offered either a cereal bar or a less-healthy chocolate bar. The runners who had ranked their experience as more fun predominately choose the cereal bar, but those who did not consider it a fun experience were more likely to choose the chocolate bar. This suggests that having fun while exercising may not only help us eat less afterwards, but to also make healthier choices.

According to researcher Carolina Werle, “Our results show that fun during physical exercise induces more healthy food choices. The mechanism explaining these effects in our first study was the positive mood induced by the fun framing of the physical activity. As participants had more fun during the physical activity, they were also in a more positive mood, and thus they needed to consume less hedonic foods afterwards.”

Make these findings work for you by finding exercise options that you actually find FUN. Make a new music playlist, try a pool workout or inviting a friend to a high-energy class like Zumba Step! Plus, it doesn’t hurt to have some healthy snacks in your gym bag to nosh on when you finish your workout. Who needs the added temptation, right?